This invention is related to a manual control apparatus for mechanically operating a plurality of hydraulic control valves and, more specifically, to a control apparatus including a single control lever for operating a pair of hydraulic control valves having related functions, such as lifting and tilting a dozer blade. In its specific embodiment, the invention includes a second control lever which also controls the pitch of the dozer blade.
It is advantageous to provide a multiple function control lever to avoid having separate levers and thus conserve space and prevent operator confusion. Such levers typically perform multiple functions by operating in more than one plane. However, when such levers control hydraulic control valves, especially those relating to different functions of the same implement, such as a dozer blade or front end loader, it would be helpful to the operator to provide additional physical differentiation between the various functions beyond the direction of movement. With stacked hydraulic control valves having a common input pressure, the actuating force is normally nearly the same for each valve in most circumstances thus providing little additional physical differentiation therebetween.